Clothes-drying machine.



I. M. RAYMOND.

CLOTHES DRYING MAOHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 29, 1912.

Patented Mar. 31, 1914:.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

WITNESSES:

Kw, m

F. M. RAYMOND CLOTHES DRYING MACHINE.

APPLIOATIQN I'ILED MAY 29, 1912.

Patented Mar. 31, 1914,

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

IIVI/ENTUR ATTORNEY WITNESSES:

; T STATES ATENT l FI.

CLOTHES-DRYING MACHINE.

to cause the clothes to roll up together in the bottom of the cylinder, reversal of rotation being necessary in order to secure eflective results. In taking out the clothes,

it is necessary to reach down to the bottom of the cylinder to get them. It has furthermore been found that owing to imperfect agitation of the clothes in the cylinder, they have not been dried uniformly.

It is one of the objects of the invention to produce a rotary drying machine in which rolling up of the clothes shall be prevented, in which reverse rotation of the cylinder need not be provided for, and from which the clothes may be readily removed, as they will rest upon a cross wall in substantial alinement with the usual opening in the casing, instead of upon the bottom of the cylinder.

A further object of the invention is' to produce'a rotary drying machine in which hot air shall be admitted to the cylinder in such a manner as to cause thorough agitation of the clothes in the lower compart-' ment, and in which the clothes shall be effectually dried by causing them to slide over heated surfaces while subjected to the action of the highly heated air.

A further object of the invention is to provide a convenient means for preventing small articles of clothing from dropping between the cylinder and casing in removing the clothes from the compartments. With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in certain constructions and in certain parts, improvements, and combinations which will be hereinafter described, and then specifically pointed out in the claims hereunto appended.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is an elevation of the machine complete, the door of the casing being partly open, Fig. 2 an end elevation as seen from the right in Specification of Letters Patent. Patented 131 31 1914 Application filed May 29, 1912.

Serial No. 700,483.

Fig. 1, Fig. 3 a section on the line 33 in Fig. 1, and Fig.4 is a detail sectional view of a portion of the driving mechanism.

1O denotes the casing which may be made of any suitable material, is preferably approximately cylindrical, and is supported by suitable framework 11',

12 denotes the drying cylinder which is carried by a shaft 13 and has an openwork periphery formed from wire netting or other suitable material. A novel feature of this cylinder is that it is divided into com partments by a metallic cross wall 14. The special mode of constructing the cross wall is not of the essence of the invention. A practical mode of forming the cross wall is illustrated in Fig. 3, in which said wall is shown as formed from two plates, the outer edge of each plate being angular and secured to the peripheral wall of the cylinder and the inner edge extending past the center and being provided with a half sleeve, the two half sleeves being complemental and when assembled in overlapping relation,

form a sleeve 15 which incloses the shaft.

The casing is provided with a circumferentially sliding door 16 and each compartment of the cylinder is provided with a circumferentially sliding door 17. The doors of the cylinder are placed diagonally opposite each other and each in the closed position engages the cross wall so as to effectually close the compartment.

47 denotes a drop leaf which is hinged to the casing and normally depends therefrom as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3. When the door 16 of the casing is open, as indicated in Fig. 1, for the purpose of putting in or removing clothes, this drop leaf may be turned over inward so that the free end thereof will rest upon cross wall 14: as indicated in Fig. '3, thereby preventing any small pieces of clothing, as handkerchiefs, stockings or collars, from dropping down between the cylinder and the casing.

External air for drying purposes is taken in by a conduit 18 and passes through a heater 19 in which the air is heated in any suitable manner. From the heater the air passes through a conduit 20 within which is a blower 21 to a tapering transverse conduit 22 which lies just below the casing and is connected with the casing by series of small pipes 23. I find in practice that by tapering conduit 20 and causing the air to pass therefrom into the casing through a passes from the top of the casing through conduits 25 into a conduit 26 and out through an exhaust 27. Conduit 26 is connected with conduit 18 by a conduit 28, so that if desired, air that has been passed through the drier may be returned through it again. Conduit 18 is provided with-a damper 29 and conduit 28 is provided with a damper 30, both appearing in dotted lines only. The shafts of these dampers are provided with arms'31 which are connected by a link 32 and the two dampers are operated by means of a lever 33. It will be noted that the dampers are so adjusted that when damper 29 is open damper 30 is closed, and vice versa, or if preferred, both dampers may be partly opened so as to mingle air from the drier with external air.

34 denotes the shaft of the blower. I have provided for driving the drying cylinder and the blower from over-head shafting or by connecting the blower shaft directly with a motor, it being understood, of course, that the cylinder shaft must rotate relatively slowly, for example, 30 more or less revolutions per minute, while the blower shaft will make several thousand rotations per minute.

35 denotes a gear-wheel which is rigidly secured to shaft 13, and 36 a sleeve which rotates freely thereon. This sleeve has keyed or otherwise rigidly secured thereto a pinion 37, a belt-pulley 38, and a smaller beltpulley 39, and has mounted to rotate thereon another belt-pulley 40 corresponding in size withbelt-pulley 39. v

41 denotes a belt-shifter of ordinary construction through which a belt, shown in dotted lines only, passes by which the cylinder is driven when the belt is passing over pulley 39. To stop the operation of the ma chine it is simply necessary to shift the belt from pulley 39 to pulley 40 as indicated in the drawing.

Pinion 37 meshes with a gear-wheel 42 mounted-to rotate on a hub 43 which projects from the frame-work. 44 denotes a pinion rigidly secured to or otherwise mounted to rotate'with gear-wheel 42. It

'will be seen, therefore, that the cylinder is rotated at greatly reduced speed through pinion 37, gear-wheel 42, pinion 44 and gearwheel 35. The fan is rotated at greatly increased speed by means of a belt 48.which passes over pulley 38 on sleeve 36 and over a very much smaller pulley 45 on blower shaft 34. In order to provide that the blower may be driven directly from a motor if preferred, I provide blower shaft 34 with a pulley 46 which may be belted di rectly to a motor (no-t shown). With the blower shaft motor driven, sleeve 36 would be driven by means of belt 48 passing over belt-pulleys 45 and 38, pinions and gearwheels 37, 42', 44 and 35 operating as before.

The operation is as follows: In filling the compartments the driving belt is of course shifted to loose pulley 40 or if the machine is motor driven the motor is stopped. The casing door is then opened as indicated in Fig. 1, the cylinderturned to place cross wall 14 in substantially a horizontal position, then thedoor of the upper compartment is opened and drop leaf 47 may be turned to its operative position as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 3, and then the dried contents of the compartment are removed and the compartment filled with wet clothes to be dried. The drop leaf is then turned back to its normal position, if it has been used, and the cylinder given a half turn to place the other compartment in position for removal of clothes and filling, that is, with the cross wall in substantially a horizontal position. Having placed clothes to be dried in either or both of the compartments the drying is effected by rotation of the cylinder as already described. Ordinarily, especially at the commencement of the operation, damper 30 will be wholly closed and damper 29 wholly opened, so that only external air is admitted to the machine. This air passes through the heater, then through the blower and into transverse conduit 22, whence it passes at a high velocity through the small I pipes into the casing and through the openwork peripheral wall of the cylinder. The effect of the jets of air at ahigh velocity entering the cylinder through the meshes is to lift the clothes from the inner periphery of each compartment as it swings to its low position thoroughly agitating the clothes and shifting them about in the compartment, and permittin free circulation of the heated air through t em. Cross wall 14 in addition to the functions already described has an important function in the operation of drying. It becomes highly heated in use. and as the cylinder rotates the clothes therein will slide along the cross wall from one side of the cylinder to the other, after which they will drop to the periphery of the cylinder and be agitated by the longitudinal strips and then when the com artment comes to the top will again sli e over the surface of the cross wall from one side of the cylinder to the other. After most of themoisture has been removed from the clothes, instead of taking in all external air the dampers may be turned to an intermediate position as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, and air that has been through the machine may be mixed with the external air or external air may be of the cylinder are then opened and the clothes from the upper compartment may be quickly and conveniently removed without reaching down into the cylinder, and, if the drop leaf is used, without danger of dropping small pieces between the casing and cylinder. The cylinder is then given a half turn and the clothes are removed from the other compartment as before. 7

Having thus described my invention I claim:

1. A clothes dryin machine comprising a casing, a rotating cy inder mounted therein, a conduit having its discharge end extending into said casing, a second conduit leading from said casing, a connection between the second conduit and the first conduit,avalve controlling the inlet end of the first conduit, a second valve in said connection, and means for opening either valve and simultaneously the other valve.

. closirlg 2. clothes drying machine comprising a casing, a shaft mounted to rotate in said casing, a cylinder secured to said shaft, a centrally located wall in said cylinder dividing the cylinder into two compartments, said wall comprising two plates having their outer edges secured to the periphera wall of the cylinder, and the inner edges provided with complemental half-sleeves ada ted to be assembled in overlapping relatlon to embrace said shaft, and means for uniting said half sleeves.

3. A clothes drying machine comprising a easing, a drying cylinder therein, an air supply conduit discharging into said casing, a valve controlling the inlet thereof, a blower cooperating with the conduit to force air into the casing, an air exhaust conduit for the casing, an air conducting connection between the two conduits, a valve controlling the admission of air to the connection, a link connection between the valves, and manually controlled means for causing the link to open one valve and simultaneously close the other valve.

4. A clothes drying machine comprising a casing, a drying cylinder therein, an air supply conduit discharging into the casing, an air exhaust conduit for the casing, an air conducting connection between the two conduits, valves controlling the two conduits for causing air to pass through the exhaust conduit, or circulate through the supply conduit, casing, exhaust and conductmg connection, and manually operated means connecting the valves to cause the same to operate simultaneously.

5. A clothes drying machine comprising a casing, a drying c linder therein formed of openwork materia an air inlet conduit, an air heater in communication with the conduit, a longitudinally tapering discharge conduit disposed beneath the casing and provided with a plurality of nozzles projecting into the casin beneath the cylinder, said discharge con uit having its larger end in communication with the e forcin heated air through the discharge conduit, an air exhaust for the casing havater, a blower for ing a by-pass connection with the air inlet 

